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Using software to keep enterprise employees in touch with each other can follow one of three major strategies: workflow apps, messaging apps that support social media, and web portals.

When an entity as large as an enterprise, or even one as modest as a project team, exceeds a certain number of participants or geographic locations, the importance of inter-employee communications starts reaching critical stages. While that critical number varies from organization to organization, a few of the factors that mandate maintaining good communications between team members include managerial oversight of project progress, the need to avoid duplication of effort, and awareness of interrelated deadlines.

Staff meetings, whether conducted in person or electronically, can only go so far in remedying communications needs, so organizations of all sizes are increasingly turning to three major types of software applications to help coordinate employee activity.

Workflow applications are the first and most formal. They include software that facilitates the tracking and coordination of group projects and information-routing within and across teams. Second are messaging and communications applications that help employees keep in touch with each other, both individually and in groups. Third are portal products, which help employees (and other authorized users) keep in touch with information published by the enterprise itself.

Considerations for Adopting Workflow Apps

Workflow applications are generally the most complex and feature-rich of the possibilities for formalizing communications between groups of employees. As such, they can also be trickiest to implement, at least according to two vendors in that market.

Paul McDonald, manager of professional services, and Bob Gleisner, director of professional services, both at LANSA, cite three common difficulties with implementing workflow application on the IBM i. First, many workflow apps are tightly coupled with line-of-business (LOB) apps and don't really offer the benefits of a generic app that can help manage business processes across an enterprise. Second, workflow apps don't let users easily create web-based GUI forms to extend or supplement existing tables with databases. Third, workflow apps lack an easily configurable way to interface with email engines or to enable integration with popular document-creation tools like Microsoft Office or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

Wim Jongman, CTO and managing director of Remain Software, sees a somewhat different set of problems facing first-time workflow application users. "IBM i users' environments are often more complex and consist of multiple platforms. Therefore, an extensible 'platform-independent' workflow management system that can call into other IBM i applications and accept input from other platforms is vital."

A second problem can be the approach an enterprise takes to workflow implementation, states Jongman. "When companies start with a workflow system, they can get too detailed and draw out a huge workflow that should cover all the aspects and [special] cases that they can ever run into. It also includes all possible items, such as document types, tasks, requests, and many others. This is a pitfall, which can quickly result in too much time spent on implementation and lead to irritation of the team responsible for the project. Large workflows are mostly caused by enthusiasm, but we also see that there are sometimes too many people involved in the initial implementation."

At third problem cited by Jongman relates to user interfaces. "In our experience, a good home for a workflow system is the browser. The challenges we face here [are whether] users want to run the workflow app on the IBM i or [instead] on an isolated system (such as Linux or Windows) and only store the data on the IBM i. Data access can be confined to only the server running the workflow system. It can also be a tough job to install application servers on the IBM i, so the challenge is to reduce the complexity and time needed for installation," he adds.

Workflow Apps as a Supplementary Venue

When asked if it was common for their customers to use both workflow and messaging software to keep their employees in touch, all three vendor representatives agreed.

"Yes, the payback for workflow implementation is to improve business process flows," noted LANSA's McDonald and Gleisner. "All workflow solutions focus on improving throughput by identifying bottlenecks or inefficiencies within the process flow. The use of dynamic messaging…allows for real-time improvements in the business process flow. Therefore, notifications via different message protocols (such as SMTP and SMS) to actors within the workflow orchestration are critical to the success of any workflow solution."

"Sharing all project-related comments, documents, and tasks within one central system significantly increases effectiveness," Jongman observes. "Nevertheless, a small percentage of exchanged information goes…through employees only. Email and other types of messaging can be much more informal, and people need informal ways of communicating to be optimally effective. I can send an opinioned email to you, but I would not do it in a reply in a workflow system."

Looking to the Future of Employee Communications

As much as any area of application software, employee intercommunication is a moving target. For example, with social media increasingly being used by enterprises to gauge their standing with customers, and employees often tending to include work peers in their social networks, social media could easily play a significant but currently unpredictable role in workplace communications of the future.

"The influence of social media on work nowadays is worth mentioning," Jongman highlights. "Everything becomes 'social,' including work and cooperation between employees."

"Mobility is essential," he adds. "Users want their applications to work on any device they use. Modern workflow management applications need to keep up with those changes and be accessible anytime, from anywhere, so that users can be constantly up to date with anything that happens in the system [and also] the platforms these workflow systems work on. Users also expect their workflow management apps to easily integrate with software of any kind."

Below are product listings for the three major types of internal communications aids for enterprise employees, listed separately. Workflow applications are first, messaging and communications applications are second, and third are portal products. (Not included here because they're outside the scope of this article are collaboration tools expressly for software developers, change-management or other types of applications that may contain collaborative features, and middleware products that support collaborative applications.)

Content Central is a document- and content-management application that provides workflow capabilities for team collaboration on documents and similar projects. Features include browser access, security protections, document-routing tools, and a large repository for preset and custom-designed business rules for managing workflows.

Confluence is a team environment that runs on IBM i servers using Linux, Windows, or Apache Tomcat. The product is an application for working on documents, software development, and other projects. It features a shared knowledge base, a repository for group project documents, and an interface to a separate project-tracking application.

Content Manager OnDemand for i runs on IBM i and other servers running AIX, Linux, and Windows. It includes IBM Content Navigator, which organizes collaborative and mobile content, facilitates collaboration on content-related projects, and integrates with other IBM filing and archiving solutions.

Lotus Workflow runs on IBM i servers to extend Domino capabilities to automate repetitive tasks. The product lets users build and deploy customized workflow procedures to manage business processes, track work as it proceeds through the organization, set business rules for such tasks as routing and manual processes, plan projects, and schedule document-based work and procedures.

Integrify is a Web-based workflow-management system that provides process definition and workflow automation for a wide variety of enterprise activities (e.g., IT, HR, finance, sales, marketing, services). Based on AJAX, the product offers a service-oriented architecture that features tools for process design, forms creation, and workflow routing, as well as a browser interface.

IntelliChief is a paperless process-management application for IBM i and other platforms that includes a workflow engine that is governed by user-specified business rules, tracks current approval-process status for active documents, sends alerts in the event of problems, and interfaces to enterprise resource planning applications.

LANSA Workflow Framework is an application for monitoring and automating business processes. It lets users define all aspects of a workflow process or document, oversee each step, and integrate the process with other applications and activities. It includes configurable email reminder and notification, automates escalation processes, controls access to data based on user roles, and audits processes for later analysis.

OpenText Content Suite Platform is a web-based app for managing enterprise-wide content. It includes tools for building document-centric workflows that enable both structured and ad hoc routing of documents for approval, review, and feedback processes.

Gravity runs on IBM i servers running V6R1 or later, or WebSphere, and other platforms running Linux or Windows. It provides business process–modeling tools that let users design workflows, define documents and business rules for their handling, track all tasks, and control and predict workloads.

Originally designed for the IBM i, Enterprise Workflow is now web-based and automates communications between employees and team members in a wide variety of formerly paper-intensive business processes. Features include electronic routing of documents based on business rules, a design tool for creating custom workflows, and security controls.

IBM Domino is a platform for hosting social business applications and offers features similar to IBM Notes. It provides an administration client and a web-browser interface, Domino Domain Monitoring (a communications problem-solving diagnostic), Domino Configuration Tuner, encryption and other security measures, and the ability to interface with third-party or custom-built applications.

IBM Domino Collaboration and Messaging Express is an environment that supports IBM Domino, offering email, collaborative, and other business applications. Designed for companies with less than 1,000 end users, the product offers security protection, interfaces for mobile devices, and automated policy enforcement.

IBM Employee Experience Suite runs on intranets on a variety of platforms and devices. Designed to foster online collaboration and social networking via intranets, the product includes a personalized interactive interface, content-management tools, security protections, and Web development tools for generating new apps for intranet environments.

Although now part of the IBM Platform for Social Business, IBM still offers Quickr as a separate product. It provides employees access to features such as content libraries, discussion forums, wikis, and team spaces.

IBM iNotes is a web-based edition of the IBM Notes client, which offers browser access to email, calendar, contacts, and social collaboration tools. It supports activity streams and embedded experiences for social media, tools for sorting and searching through email messages, extensive calendar support, and security protections.

IBM Notes is an email software client that integrates messaging, social collaboration, and business applications into a single interface that's available for server clients and mobile devices. The product provides encrypted data replication and a calendaring and contact-management interface, as well as facilitates communications between members of designated project teams.

IBM Verse is a soon-to-be-announced IBM product that re-imagines email services by basing them on end-user business roles. Details are unavailable at publication time, but you can sign up to be notified (at the link associated with the product name) when IBM releases more information.

OpenText Tempo Social helps enterprises build a more engaging social-media atmosphere for their businesses, both externally by use of social features (e.g., blogs, wikis, forums) and by augmenting social marketing, as well as internally by creating more socially oriented intranets, thereby creating two-way communications between employees, customers, and vendors.

SWING Integrator is a printing, reporting, and document automation solution for IBM Notes that helps users integrate Microsoft Office or OpenOffice with Notes and Domino applications. Examples of Integrator functions are creating PDF files, MS Office documents in Notes, and mail merge letters and labels with Notes data. It also enables development of both Domino Web and Notes client-based applications.

WebSphere Portal Enable provides the features of WebSphere Portal Server and adds portal services that personalize access to content and applications, content-management tools that facilitate website generation, and document libraries to help with content organization.

WebSphere Portal Express is an SMB version of WebSphere Portal Server. It offers simplified installation and administration, social capabilities (e.g., blogs, wikis, tagging, ratings), support for document libraries, a unified page-presentation service, and a website builder with frameworks for features such as portlets, feeds, and HTML pages.

John Ghrist has been a journalist, programmer, and systems manager in the computer industry since 1982. He has covered the market for IBM i servers and their predecessor platforms for more than a quarter century and has attended more than 25 COMMON conferences. A former editor-in-chief with Defense Computing and a senior editor with SystemiNEWS, John has written and edited hundreds of articles and blogs for more than a dozen print and electronic publications. He is currently CEO of John Ghrist Agency, a marketing communications firm for technology companies. You can reach him at [email protected].

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Experts’ fears surrounding the risks associated with poor configuration were recently confirmed by the 2016 State of IBM i Security Study. Published annually, the results reveal most Power Systems lack adequate security controls and auditing measures.

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System values are one of the fundamental elements of IBM i security. The security system values enable you to “set the tone” of security on your IBM i, enforce password composition rules, and enable auditing. Watch this on-demand webinar to see Carol Woodbury describe these system values and provide guidance on their best practice settings.

Getting Started with IBM i Security: Integrated File System (IFS)

The IFS is one of the most commonly overlooked aspects of IBM i securityExperts’ fears surrounding the risks associated with poor configuration were recently confirmed by the 2016 State of IBM i Security Study. Published annually, the results reveal most Power Systems lack adequate security controls and auditing measures. In this fast-paced webinar series, leading experts Robin Tatam and Carol Woodbury share insight into critical areas of IBM i security. This recorded session has Robin Tatam introducing IFS security: - Defining IFS - How the IFS is configured - Common IFS security mistakes- What a virus can do to IBM i through the IFS - Tracking user activity

​7 Habits of Highly Secure Organizations

Everyone knows that cyber security is important, but getting started on the road to data protection and compliance can be confusing and intimidating. Understanding common vulnerabilities helps you focus your attention and resources on the areas that need the most help. We all want “best-practice” security, but what are top organizations doing to achieve and maintain it? Watch this webinar to learn the details about how to develop the seven habits that are part of daily life for secure organizations. You’ll learn how to: - Break the Ostrich Syndrome - Develop a Security Policy - Assess Current Standing - Perform Security Event Logging and Review - Use “Best of Breed” Technologies - Monitor for Ongoing Compliance - Plan for the Future This on-demand webinar examines what each of these habits means to IBM i, and helps you make sure that you don’t become the next security statistic.

An Introduction to PCI Compliance on IBM Power Systems

"From the world's largest corporations to small Internet stores, compliance with the PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is vital for all merchants who accept credit cards, online or offline, because nothing is more important than keeping your customer’s payment card data secure.” — PCI Security Standards Council Complying with the PCI standard is a normal part of doing business in today’s credit-centric world. But, PCI applies to multiple platforms. The challenge becomes how to map the general PCI requirements to a specific platform, such as IBM i. And, more importantly, how can you maintain—and prove—compliance? Watch this webinar to understand: - How PCI requirements relate to IBM i systems - IBM i-specific barriers to compliance - How PowerTech security solutions help you fulfill PCI requirements, meet compliance guidelines, and satisfy auditors You’ll leave with the knowledge and confidence you need to evaluate PCI compliance requirements and prepare your IBM i system for today’s regulatory challenges.

Implementing Multiple Layers of Defense

Your IBM i holds a massive amount of data. In most organizations, that data constitutes a mission-critical and high-value asset.

How do you adequately protect the data residing on your IBM i, given its value to your organization? IBM has provided us with many options for protecting our data, but it’s now always clear how to select and implement the best options for your circumstances.

This recorded webinar describes IBM i’s different data security options, along with implementation recommendations and tips for getting started. Carol Woodbury, one of the world’s top IBM i security experts, also provides considerations to help you determine how many layers of security are right for your organization.

Data Breaches: Is IBM i Really at Risk?

IBM i is known for its security, but this OS could be more vulnerable than you think. Although Power Servers often live inside the safety of the perimeter firewall, the risk of suffering a data leak or data corruption remains high. Watch noted IBM i security expert Robin Tatam as he discusses common ways that this supposedly “secure” operating system may actually be vulnerable and who the culprits might be.

Easy Mobile Development

Watch this on-demand webinar and learn how to rapidly and easily deploy mobile apps to your organization – even when working with legacy RPG code! IBM Champion Scott Klement will demonstrate how to: - Develop RPG applications without mobile development experience - Deploy secure applications for any mobile device - Build one application for all platforms, including Apple and Android - Extend the life and reach of your IBM i (aka iSeries, AS400) platform You’ll see examples from customers who have used our products and services to deliver the mobile applications of their dreams, faster and easier than they ever thought possible! Watch this Webinar Now!

Profound UI: Unlock True Modernization from your IBM i Enterprise

Modern, web-based applications can make your Enterprise more efficient, connected and engaged. This session will demonstrate how the Profound UI framework is the best and most native way to convert your existing RPG applications and develop new modern applications for your business. Additionally, you will learn how you can address modernization across your Enterprise, including databases and legacy source code, with Profound Logic. We will demonstrate how Profound UI: - Goes beyond simple screen-scraping to truly modernize your RPG applications - Uses RPG Open Access and your own RPG code and development talent to modernize - Supports rapid development with an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop Designer - Integrates with our on-the-fly modernization, mobile development, and Enterprise Modernization solutions

5 New and Unique Ways to Use the IBM i Audit Journal

High availability for IBM i has been a hot topic in 2017, jumping 20% from our 2016 survey to take the #2 seat on IT priority lists just behind cybersecurity. And no surprise with these two topics so closely tied to your most valuable asset: your irreplaceable business data. With major airline outages last year and the recent ransomware attacks, you must be asking yourself: am I doing everything I can to protect my organization’s data? Tune in as our panel of IBM i high availability experts—Tom Huntington, Matt Staddler, and Cole Ragland—deliver lively discussion around the top high availability issues of today, including:

Why companies don’t test role swaps when they know they should

Whether high availability in the cloud makes sense for IBM i users

Why some organizations don’t have high availability yet

How to get high availability up and running at your organization

High availability considerations for today’s security concerns

There are no do-overs when it comes to your data. Once it’s gone, it’s gone...unless you have a data replication layer in place to protect it. Learn the value of these strategic solutions and how you can implement them in a hurry—watch now!

Profound.js 2.0: Extend the Power of Node to your IBM i Applications

In this Webinar, we'll demonstrate how Profound.js 2.0 enables you to easily adopt Node.js in your business, and to take advantage of the many benefits of Node, including access to a much larger pool of developers for IBM i and access to countless reusable open source code packages on npm (Node Package Manager). You will see how Profound.js 2.0 allows you to:

Make Modern Apps You'll Love with Profound UI & Profound.js

Roses are red, your UIs are green...It's time to make your apps proud to be seen! Whether you have green screens or a drab GUI, your outdated apps can benefit from modern source code, modern GUIs, and modern tools. Profound Logic's Alex Roytman and Liam Allan are here to show you how Free-format RPG and Node.js make it possible to deliver applications your whole business will love.In this webinar, you'll learn how you can use both Profound UI and Profound.js to:

Transform legacy RPG code to modern free-format RPG and Node.js

Deliver truly modern application interfaces with Profound UI

Extend your RPG applications to include Web Services and NPM packages with Node.js

This webinar will include a live product demonstration and Q&A with the presenters.

Download and watch today!

2017 IBM i Marketplace Revealed

IBM i is one of technology’s best-kept secrets, with little information available about what IBM i users are doing on this server. Even companies that use this technology struggle to explain to their own teams what IBM i stands for and who else is using it. The IBM i Marketplace Survey—now in its 3rd year—was designed to solve this problem. Watch this on-demand webinar for the exclusive results of the 2017 survey. IBM i Champion Tom Huntington is joined by a panel of technology experts to discuss year-over-year trends and new insights. The panel will discuss:

What other platforms do you run alongside IBM i?

What programming and Open Source languages are you using?

What are your top IT issues?

What version of POWER and what OS level is most prevalent?

Are you expanding your usage of IBM i?

Is IBM i a good ROI?

The expert panel will provide industry insight and comments about the results. When the webinar concludes, you’ll get access to the full results.

Accelerating Programmer Productivity with Sequel

Most business intelligence tools are just that: tools, a means to an end but not an accelerator. Yours could even be slowing you down. But what if your BI tool didn't just give you a platform for query-writing but also improved programmer productivity? Watch the recorded webinar to see how Sequel:

Makes creating complex results simple

Eliminates barriers to data sources

Increases flexibility with data usage and distribution

Accelerated productivity makes everyone happy, from programmer to business user.

Business Intelligence is Changing: Make Your Game Plan

Everyone wants a piece of your business data. But keeping up with data access requests in the era of constantly growing data is a challenge. As a result, your IT department can be overwhelmed, inundated, and constantly needing to play catch-up. It’s time to develop a strategy that will help you meet your informational challenges head-on. Watch the webinar to learn how to set your IT department up for business intelligence success in 2018. You’ll learn how the right data access tool will help you:

Access IBM i data faster

Deliver useful information to executives and business users

Empower users with secure data access

Ready to make your game plan and finally keep up with your data access requests?

Controlling Insider Threats on IBM i

Let’s face facts: servers don’t hack other servers. Despite the avalanche of regulations, news headlines remain chock full of stories about data breaches, all initiated by insiders or intruders masquerading as insiders. User profiles are often duplicated or restored and are rarely reviewed for the appropriateness of their current configuration. This increases the risk of the profile being able to access data without the intended authority or having privileges that should be reserved for administrators. Watch noted security expert Robin Tatam as he discusses a new approach for onboarding new users on IBM i and best-practices techniques for managing and monitoring activities after they sign on.

Don't Just Settle for Query/400...

There’s a better way to run your queries. With an advanced query tool like Sequel Data Access, you can deliver the IBM i data your organization needs quickly and efficiently—without the hang-ups. In this session, we’ll address common frustrations with Query/400, discuss major data access and distribution trends, and help you understand what to look for in a more advanced query tool. Plus, you’ll learn how a tool like Sequel lightens IT’s load by:

Accessing real-time data, so you can make real-time decisions

Providing run-time prompts, so users can help themselves

Delivering instant results in Microsoft Excel and PDF, without the wait

Watch the webinar and learn why you shouldn’t just settle for Query/400.

How to Manage Documents the Easy Way

What happens when your company depends on an outdated document management strategy? Everything is harder. Capturing documents means scanning and filing—which takes you away from tasks that actually matter to the business. Managing documents means sorting through an endless sea of shared folders or filing cabinets—and sometimes documents can’t be found. Distributing documents means following a frustrating, manual process for routing documents internally and sending them to vendors and customers. You don’t need to stick with status quo anymore. Watch the webinar to learn how to put effective document management into practice and:

Capture documents faster, instead of wasting everyone’s time

Manage documents easily, so you can always find them

Distribute documents automatically, and move on to the next task

Lessons Learned from the AS/400 Breach

Get actionable info to avoid becoming the next cyberattack victim. In “Data breach digest—Scenarios from the field,” Verizon documented an AS/400 security breach. Whether you call it AS/400, iSeries, or IBM i, you now have proof that the system has been breached. Watch IBM i security expert Robin Tatam give an insightful discussion of the issues surrounding this specific scenario. Robin will also draw on his extensive cybersecurity experience to discuss policies, processes, and configuration details that you can implement to help reduce the risk of your system being the next victim of an attack.

Monitor VIOS (and AIX) from Your IBM i

Virtual I/O Server (VIOS) runs on AIX and allows you to share input/output resources across logical partitions. The health of your VIOS server is critical to the performance of all your Power server partitions, so monitoring it is a must. Our 2017 IBM i Marketplace Survey Results uncovered a cool trend: an increasing number of IBM i shops are running AIX instances alongside IBM i on Power Systems servers. We like to see these systems playing nicely together on the same server, though it does shine a spotlight on shared resources. During this 30-minute recording, our experts demonstrate the new VIOS and AIX monitoring capabilities in Robot Monitor. You’ll learn about:

The top AIX metrics that impact VIOS

Real-time monitoring with dashboard displays

Threshold and notification options

Identifying trends to better allocate resources

With VIOS/AIX running alongside IBM i, you need visibility into your entire Power environment. Watch now to see how Robot Monitor can get you there!

Overwhelmed by Operating Systems?

You’re responsible for looking after Windows, Linux, AIX, and VIOS, but you worry that you don’t understand their complexities well enough to make your job effective—or easy. No problem! Simplify the management of multiple operating systems and applications without becoming experts in each area. In this 30-minute recorded webinar, our experts demonstrate how you can:

Manage multiple platforms from a central location

View monitoring results in a single pane of glass on your desktop or mobile device

This presentation includes a live demo of Network Server Suite and shows how easy monitoring multiple operating systems and applications can be using point-and-click technology.

Real-Time Disk Monitoring with Robot Monitor

When IBM i disk space pulls its notorious disappearing act, you don’t have time to waste figuring out how the trick is done. You need to know when disk space starts to disappear and where it has gone before system performance and productivity start to suffer. Looking behind the curtain to keep a close eye on disk space—especially in a multi-partition environment—can have its challenges, but every good admin can have an ace up their sleeve. Our experts will show you how Robot Monitor can help you pinpoint exactly when your auxiliary storage starts to disappear and why, so you can start taking a proactive approach to disk monitoring and analysis. You’ll also get insight into:

The main sources of disk consumption

How to monitor temporary storage and QTEMP objects in real time

How to monitor objects and libraries in real time and near-real time

How to track long-term disk trends

Start seeing through the sleight of hand and get instant visibility into disk usage. Add advance warning of potential threats and—abracadabra!—you’ll reduce the risk of disk space depletion and curb the sudden flurry of activity to clean things up.

Stop Re-keying Data Between IBM I and Other Applications

Still following manual processes for extracting and transferring data across platforms? You’re not alone. Many business still depend on RPG for their daily business processes and report generation. And that leads to a lot of manual effort. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could stop re-keying data between IBM i and other applications? Or if you could stop replicating data and start processing orders faster? Or what if you could automatically extract data from existing reports instead of re-keying? It’s all possible. Watch this webinar to learn about:

The data dilemma

3 ways to stop re-keying data

Data automation in practice

Plus, you’ll see a demonstration of how data automation software from HelpSystems will help you finally stop re-keying data.

Protecting your organization from cyberthreats has never been more important—or more difficult. IT pros have many tactics to choose from, but time (and budgets!) are not unlimited. The key is prioritizing risks and identifying the most effective ways to mitigate the danger. In 2018, HelpSystems surveyed more than 600 IT and cybersecurity professionals to find out what security exploits loom largest and what strategies they’re turning to for protection. In this on-demand webinar, our team of cybersecurity security experts analyzes results. You’ll learn about:

Security strategies your peers are most interested in implementing

How managers and executives prioritize security

Who is responsible for cybersecurity at organizations around the world

Where IT pros turn for assistance with security

You'll also get practical tips for using this data to drive cybersecurity conversations at your organization.

The Top Five RPG Open Access Myths....BUSTED!

When it comes to IBM® Rational® Open Access: RPG Edition (also known as RPG Open Access), there are still many misconceptions - especially where application modernization is concerned!

In this Webinar, we'll address some of the biggest myths about RPG Open Access, including:

The RPG language is outdated and impractical for modernizing applications

Modernizing with RPG OA is the equivalent to "screen scraping"

This Webinar features IBM i expert Alison Butterill, and Profound Logic’s Brian May and Alex Roytman.

Watch the On-demand Webinar Now!

Time to Remove the Paper from Your Desk and Become More Efficient

Do your users keep paperwork on their desk until it's processed? Are people constantly removing documents from filing cabinets? What happens when your company depends on an outdated document management strategy? Too much paper is wasted—approximately 1,000 pages per month per worker. Attempts to locate documents in endless filing cabinets drive your employees crazy. And distributing documents to customers, vendors, and business partners is expensive and takes up far too much time. These are just three common reasons why it might be time for your company to implement a paperless document management system. Watch the webinar to learn more and discover how easy it can be to:

Capture

Manage

And distribute documents digitally

Plus, our experts will provide a live demonstration of how implementing a document management solution will quickly solve your paper-based problems, so you can be more

IBM i: It’s Not Just AS/400

IBM’s Steve Will talks AS/400, POWER9, cognitive systems, and everything in between

Are there still companies that use AS400? Of course!

IBM i was built on the same foundation.Watch this recorded webinar with IBM i Chief Architect Steve Will and IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington to gain a unique perspective on the direction of this platform, including:

TRY the One Package That Solves All Your Document Design and Printing Challenges

Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Why support 5 different products, when you can do it all with MarkMagic?

Backup and Recovery on IBM i: Your Strategy for the Unexpected

Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include: - Simplified backup procedures - Easy data encryption - Save media management - Guided restoration - Seamless product integration Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits.Try the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution FREE for 30 days.

Manage IBM i Messages by Exception with Robot

Managing messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include: - Automated message management - Tailored notifications and automatic escalation - System-wide control of your IBM i partitions - Two-way system notifications from your mobile device - Seamless product integration Keep your critical applications and data available. Try the Robot Message Management Solution FREE for 30 days.

MS Office Connector for Query/400...FREE Trial!

NGS' Qport Office enables Windows users to run IBM Query/400 queries to: - Create and update Excel spreadsheets and Access databases - Create Word documents - Send to Windows screen and PC printers No query conversion is required. Works with i5/OS V5R1 & above. Installs in minutes! If you don’t have a budget to replace IBM Query/400, but want your users to have one click enhanced output of their queries.... Request the online license agreement and product download instructions today! Offer good through December 31, 2016.

Control and Monitor User Access from Desktop PCs (ODBC, FTP)

Protect your company by monitoring network traffic to your IBM i servers with the industry-leading exit program, PowerTech Network Security. Without visibility into IBM i's exit points, your users could be viewing, changing, or even deleting sensitive data—and you wouldn’t know! Network Security lets you monitor and control access to over 30 exit points, including:

ACO MONITOR Manages your IBM i 24/7 and Notifies You When Your IBM i Needs Assistance!

More than a paging system - ACO MONITOR is a complete systems management solution for your Power Systems running IBM i. Managing the complexities of today's operating systems, business applications, and networks challenges even the most knowledgeable IT professionals. The cost to an enterprise of unplanned downtime, loss of human expertise during sick leave or vacation, and system/application or environmental failure can be devastating. ACO MONITOR manages your Power System 24/7, uses advanced technology (like two-way messaging) to notify on-duty support personnel, and responds to complex problems before they reach critical status.